By the side of St Marys churchyard, on the edge of the woods and before you start the climb up the hilly meadow, there is a large wide expanse of nettles, long grasses, docks and brambles which is alive with wildlife.
I've always been drawn to areas of scrub like this. So many people walk past without seeing what critters are lurking and loitering on the leaves, flowers and berries, but I can hang around a scrubby patch for hours with my camera. I often get odd looks from passers by but it doesn't bother me, haha.
but back to St Marys.... I was there yesterday and again today looking for one particular butterfly.
I did find it, but more about that little beauty later.
I spotted at least six species of hoverfly but have only manged to photograph four. Species names are under each pic ...
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| Episyrphus balteatus - the commonly called 'Marmalade Fly |
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| Helophilus pendulus - also called the 'footballer' due to it's stripy top half |
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| Chrysotoxum bicinctum - one of the wasp mimics |
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| Syrphus species - there are three hoverflies in the Syrphus family but my photo is not clear enough to narrow it down |
In late spring and summer longhorn beetles are out and about, and this one is a head on view of Rutpela maculata commonly referred to as the Black and Yellow Longhorn, for obvious reasons ...
My favourite bugs are the Dock Bugs. I find their appearance fascinating, almost like mini dinosaurs. As their name suggests, they are often found on Dock leaves and these are turning red now with age.
The bug below is from the same species family as the Dock, and is roughly the same size. This one is the Hairy shieldbug, sometimes called the Sloe shieldbug. I tried to get a photo of the amazing colours of it's shell from the top but the little critter was too fast for me and disappeared under a leaf.
As to be expected there were hundreds of damselflies around the scrub. This one is a male Common Blue ...
If you're a follower of my blog posts you'll know that I also have a fascination with ladybirds. They come in all sizes and colours, and have four life stages. Egg, pupa, larva and adult. I recently got very excited because I'd found my first 14-Spot larva. Very small and very fast. Yesterday I found another one on the St Marys scrub, and there was a 7-Spot larva right next to it that gives a good size comparison. June is the best month to look for larva before they start pupating...
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| 14-Spot larva on the left and 7-Spot larva on the right |
Today it was the butterflies that stole the show. I saw 12 species but only managed to photograph the seven below …. names under each photo ….
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| Comma - a bit too high up on the brambles for me to get a decent photo |
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| Small Tortoiseshell sheltering under a nettle leaf |
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| Meadow Brown underwing |
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| Meadow Brown - male |
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| Meadow Brown - female |
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| Meadow Brown - underwing |
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| Large Skipper - male - the males have a dark band across their upper wing |
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| Large Skipper - male |
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| Small Skipper - they lack the light patches on the upper wings that the Large Skippers have |
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| Large Skipper |
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| Large Skipper |
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| Large Skipper - male |
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| Large Skipper |
I also found the aptly named Ringlets today, my first ones of the season. They are very hard to sex when they have their wings closed, but when open the females are slightly paler than the chocolate brown males and have obvious ringed circles on both upper and lower wing. The males lack the ringed circles on open wings but do have them on their underwings. Sadly I couldn't get any photos of either with their wings open, so you'll have to make do with these …
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| Ringlet |
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| Ringlet |
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| Ringlet |
And the one particular butterfly that I really wanted to see, did not disappoint !
The beautifully intricately marked Marbled White.
It is a fairly common butterfly in the south but is rare in the north, and it's not uncommon to find them in large numbers when roosting. Males are slightly smaller than females and their underwings are predominantly black and white. Female underwings are more bronzey-brown and white.
At Cranford Park, where I have recorded all butterfly species since 2016 for a nationwide scheme, I have only seen a Marbled White twice and both times it flew past me without settling. At Maple Lodge NR, one of my favourite nature reserves, I have seen and photographed the odd individual. And yesterday at St Marys scrub I had two fly past me without settling. But today there must have been in excess of 30-40 Marbled Whites. They were on the brambles, in the long grasses, settling to feed and chasing each other. It was a wonderful experience and hence I took over a 100 photos.
As it's my blog I wont apologise for all of the pics to come and hopefully you'll see why I find this beauty so enthralling.
Hope you're sitting comfortably …
Today has to go down in my books as one of the best wildlife experiences I have ever had, and no doubt I'll be popping back there again soon.
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